host families

And so it begins… 2017

Beach, Brazil, Exchange year, Holidays, host families, Rotary, Stories, Travel

A normal New Year’s resolution usually is about traveling to the city of your dreams AND I got to start the New Year in the Country of my dreams. How lucky am I? A year ago I didn’t know this city even existed and now everything in my life happens here.

Today is my 147th day in Brazil! I am told by the people around me that I am growing up to be someone more wise, mature, outgoing and friendlier than the person I was 5 months ago. I think it’s the amazing people that surround me, and the time spent with each and every day with that has had a huge influence on who I have become.

I enjoy meeting new people and building all kinds of different relationships. My connection with all the other inbound students in Brazil started because we are all students exploring a foreign country, learning a new language and culture. The connections I have with friends in SUMMIT is built amongst everyday hobbies, class, sports (etc…) we have in common. The friendships are both important but built on different experiences.

Traveling makes it easy to see different cultures, but to have a relationship with the culture is special. I might post pictures like a total tourist, but I have stories behind them that say otherwise. The touristic side and local sides are very opposite. I think sharing the holidays with my host families makes a huge impact on my experience. In my opinion, the way you spend holidays with your parents would stay the same where ever you might be to spend it. But to celebrate with your host parents you really get the feeling of the another culture and new traditions.

The best news to finishing out 2016 was our host parent’s surprise was to spend New Years at the beach here in Parana. It’s not ideal paradise, but we made the most of it. It recently had a hard rainstorm that wiped out most of the sidewalk along the beach and knocked out the cellphone signal. For the last 4 days of the year, If we weren’t laying out in the sun at the beach in Mathinos, we were playing cards, cooking delicious fish or churrasco and listened to Brazilian music. Each day the beach got more and more crowded with families visiting for the holiday. It was tough taking photos without someone standing in the background!

Here in Brazil, it’s a tradition to wear all white representing peace with colored underwear representing how you are feeling. For example loved = pink, happiness = yellow, lucky = green. Everyone stays up until midnight then heads down to the beach to pop some champagne while you watch the fireworks. After doing so, you think of 7 wishes for the new year and jump 7 waves for good luck.

Fireworks

She was my Mid-night Kiss

3… JUMP

2016 Highlights:

The greatest lesson I learned, your best friends will be the ones that notice when you’re gone and miss you but more importantly can’t wait until I get home!

The most difficult thing of 2016 was letting go of my past so I could stop being defined by past mistakes and start living for the new challenges and strive to be a better me.

Favorite memory would be my school trip to Spain only because that was the first time I flew overseas without my family. That was the first time I lived with a host family. The first time I got super close to new people both from my school and in Spain!

I will never forget meeting all the other exchange students that are living in Curitiba. Our friendships are built off the experiences we face together during these incredible 10 months aboard.

Looking ahead to 2017:

Right now, I am looking forward to my Northeast trip that will start at the top of Brazil and continue down the coast to Rio in a bus with all the exchange students from my district.

I want to learn how to Zumba dance and cook my favorite Brazilian meal before I leave.

For school, I want to get these online classes out of the way so I can enjoy my exchange!

On a personal level, I want to be spiritually grounded.

My motto to be a good person, but don’t waste time proving it!

Hot vs White Christmas Day!

Brazil, Cool People, Exchange year, Holidays, host families, Places, Stories

Feliz Natal…Merry Christmas

Christmas is finally come to end! As my weekend was full of visiting all my host families places or checking up with my family that’s finally all back together in the US over facetime. As a result, this was my first Christmas without snow. In fact, I got to wear a summer dress and flip flops to all the Christmas gatherings.

It started out with going to see the famous orphanage choir sing to Brazilian Christmas songs in the center of Curitiba. It is a 45-minute show the audience stood outside and the orphans sang out windows of a bank that was decorated everything from lights to a stage and projections on the sides to follow the theme of each song. And ended the night with opening presents. I am so grateful for my 2nd host family, I was not expecting to get any gifts but they surprised me with new sandals, jewelry, beach towel, a tank top and makeup!

It was new to me to learn all the different ways people celebrate Christmas around the world. At first, I thought it was strange when my Hungarian sister and I fought about which day was ACTUALLY Christmas. But in reality it makes sense in Slovakia, Holland, Denmark, and Hungary Christmas is on the December 24th otherwise Santa Claus wouldn’t be able to visit every house in one night! Fun fact I learned this weekend was Santa Claus was actually created in Finland and wore all green originally. But the Coca-Cola company invested in paying for extra advertising so that Santa wore red instead.

The clique saying going around this weekend was in America the kids are only a morning people on December 25th because its only a tradition in the US to open presents in the morning. I noticed Brazilians like to decorate for Christmas as far out as the middle of November. It was new and different for me because its normal for me to at least wait until after Thanksgiving but they don’t have such thing here. Here in Brazil normally they open presents at 10 pm on the 24th. Some Catholic traditions are taken seriously others are not even touched depending on the family. As far as my first host family everyone lives close to each other, but on the December 24th, they spend it on their dad’s side and 25th with their mom’s. As far as the family I live with now my host mom’s family came to us for the holidays but every other year they try and get away to spend at least one of the holidays at the beach.

Not only did I get to experience Xmas in Brazil this year but also Hungary. Zsofi (my sister) explained to me that her Christmas is actually spent on both December 6th and December 24th. On December 6th Saint Nicolas comes and puts chocolate in your shoes after they simply clean them. But on December 24th little Jesus comes to town to drop off their presents under the Christmas tree. They also decorate the tree on the 24th, walk around their tree caroling and light sparklers. Specifically, her family always buys a new board game to play with after all the gifts have been opened. Then December 25th is simply just spent relaxing, visiting other friends and family and having a feast.

Here in Brazil, it is the start of summer so everyone’s goal is to have a nice body to look good in a bikini but officially starting the break off with holidays full of huge feasts its hard to keep working on that nice summer body. I guess that’s the only nice thing I miss about having Christmas and New Years in the winter. Because you don’t have to worry so much about how you eat but more about how to stay warm and still look stylish!

Road Trip!

Brazil, Cool People, host families

I just got home from a 5-day road trip with my 2nd host parents and their poodle. Spending 5 hours in a car with my host parents (or anyone for that matter) can really bring you together. Of course, most of the conversations consist of them pointed at signs, trucks, animals and products growing in the fields and I would translate it into English. They would attempt at repeating it and we would laugh and laugh. My relationship with my 2nd host parents is a lot stronger than what I had with my last host parents. I think it is because I am an only child now and my last family I had two older sisters. I miss my first Brazilian family because I was just getting comfortable and close to my sisters. Now, I feel like I’m really getting a Brazilian experience. My new host parents don’t know any English. I can feel my Portuguese increasing every second. The two family experiences are very different so I’m glad I get to experience both of them.

On our road trip, we traveled to Fransisco Beltrao to meet all the relatives and extended family. Every day, I met at least 4 new family members. I now have 7 new cousins, 5 new aunts and uncles and 6 new grandparents. My immediate family in the US is very small, so it’s crazy to think my Brazilian family is twice as big. This past vacation I connected with people in a way that I would never have imagined. Whether it was comparing English words to Portuguese or sharing pictures of my town, family, friends, housing, foods… I think the most mind blowing thing about my culture was I come from somewhere that is majority cold, snowy and mountains taller than their tallest building. I think the hardest question to answer is “Do you miss United States food?” I don’t typically eat “American food” because my mom is Pescatarian, Vegan, and Gluten free so I don’t normally have hamburgers, chicken wings, or any red meat on a daily basis. Don’t get me wrong, I got opportunities to eat meat back in the US. Mostly at special occasions, eating out or when staying at a friend’s house. But here in Brazil, I eat meat at least once a day, every day I can’t remember the last time I had fish.

Saturday was probably the busiest craziest day of the road trip. My dad’s sister, his nephew, and his other niece all have the same birthday, so all day Saturday we went to birthday parties. It was his nephew’s 1-year-old birthday and his sister was turning 35. After his nephews birthday party, my cousins took me driving around the city so I got to see more about it. Fransisco Beltrao was where my host dad is from. Fransisco Beltrao is a city famous for rotary clubs and they have a copy of Christ the Redeemer in Rio Janiero. My cousins and I got to know each other through the music we shared in common. Their favorite thing to do with their friends is finding a spot at a park and spend time playing cards and drinking traditional ice tea in the shade. Fransisco also continues to stay super hot throughout the year so many of the houses normally have pools. If they aren’t at the park they enjoy pool parties. Later, we showed up at his aunt’s house to hang out with the adults and eat more food. We didn’t get much time to spend at his aunt’s house because seconds later we were driving my host dad’s mother to the emergency room. We were all enjoying the food and having conversations out on the patio when all of a sudden their grandma walked right into the glass sliding door. She hit the glass door so hard her glasses cracked the glass and cut her eyebrow. As she was losing balance my cousin and I raced over to catch her, while we slowly walked her to the car I thought to myself. This day was so ironic, I met them this morning and here I am almost midnight and on my way to the emergency room. When my cousin and his grandma gave me the option to come with them to the emergency room I was shocked and honored. Out of all the other family members, she’s clearly known longer? It made me feel accepted and a part of the family.

It’s crazy to think I only spent 36 hours this family but when I had to say goodbye I started to miss all one of them. They opened this door into their world and welcomed me in with open arms. I really connected with them in such a short period of time. Meeting new people will always have an effect on you, but realizing that I may never get to see them again was kind of depressing. Of course, people say as long as you stay in touch, your feelings for those people will stay the same… until we meet again. Luckily they want to come visit U.S. I would be more than happy to welcome them into my little house in Colorado in the future, but as I walked away from that visit I really reflected on how much I hate saying goodbyes…

Day 1…. Curitiba Parana Brazil

Brazil, Cool People, host families, Stories

Saying goodbye for 311 days seems like a lot but at this age I’m ready for a change. Thinking about it during my travels to the opposite hemisphere made me realize….this world is huge and where I come from is like a snow globe. Walking into Brasilia earlier today was the beginning of a new life. Of course that snow globe will always be my HOME but here I can start all over with first impressions and appearances because no one knows me yet. Brazil has always been another dream place to visit and now that I’m here, I’m ready for the adventures to show me a new direction. Traveling is in my blood now that I have traveled to 8 different countries so far.

I currently am hanging out in my new apartment… its in the heart of downtown Curitiba. My view is of tall and colorful buildings everywhere around me. Brazil is better then I expected because I love the food, super friendly people, warm weather and another culture. For lunch today it was like a all you can eat buffet but you pay by how much your plate of food weighs. I ordered lemonade to drink and it looked all cloudy with bubbly foam at the top and it was delicious. My families were there at the airport to greet me with banners, balloons, pins to cover my blazer and big hugs! The adults can barely speak English so we made a deal when I teach them English, they will teach me Portuguese. I already feel close to all my host SISTERS! Comparing Summit County to Curitiba there is a lot of differences so they have so much to show me around here. And hopefully I get the chance to show them around Colorado someday. “But there’s no rush because I HAVE A YEAR,” before I have to show my own family around.